• Brigadoon (1954 film)

2/15/24 (Fri)

This 1954 film, made in the glory days of the MGM musical, falls well short of the dizzying standards that the studio had set. The wonderful Broadway version offers ample opportunity for big-screen treatment: it’s set in the lush highlands of an exotic locale with distinctive speech, clothing and culture, and has fantastic music and dance scenes that could easily be opened up for the movie. Unfortunately the filmmakers were apparently unable to film on location in Scotland because of weather and cost issues, so the production looks somewhat cheap, like The Sound of Music without the Alps. Also, Alan Jay Lerner’s dialogue comes across as dated and sappy. That’s not true of other MGM musicals at the time, including Lerner’s own films, and is certainly not the case for Lerner’s engaging stage script. The film feels of its time. On the other hand, the costumes are colorful, the orchestrations are spectacular (for the all-too-few songs that made into the film), and the energetic production numbers have a wonderful Scottish feel. I’ve seen criticism over the Scottish accents, but I’m no judge of that; it sounded fine to me.

The big issue is the leads. Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse are better known as dancers than singers, which is fine in theory given the central role of dance in the show. And their dances are fine in themselves. The problem is that their classical fare has no specific setting, which flattens the show, making it indistinguishable from other musicals. The film eliminates many of the original numbers, like the sword dance, that better fit the Scottish setting. As Kelly is playing an American visiting Scotland, it is not illogical that he would have a different dance style. But unlike the stage show, the movie uses dance as decoration rather than as an integral element of the plot. For instance, Kelly and Van Johnson take solo parts in “I’ll Go Home With Bonnie Jean” despite just having arrived in a strange town and knowing no one, and do a soft shoe that has nothing to do with Scotland. Once you have these star dancers, I suppose you have to use them, but it sacrifices the integrity of the story.

In addition, the film jettisons a number of songs that are central to the story and characters. “There But For You Go I” and “From This Day On” would both have expressed Kelly’s feelings much more subtly and deeply than his doe-eyed looks and by-the-book acting. “Come to Me, Bend to Me” rounds out Charlie’s character on stage; without it, his character has little impact. Both of Meg’s comic numbers are gone, so her presence is also much reduced. Musically, the film focuses almost exclusively on the main lovers, making everyone else bit players. The song treatment is not only a waste given the quality of the score, but dilutes the story as well.

Kelly and Charisse are both coasting here. They do more posing than acting, and I didn’t believe a word of it (though their dancing is superlative). Van Johnson is appropriately cynical, but I don’t think he needs a punch line for every sentence. The jilted lover who threatens to leave the town, played by a NY City Ballet star, was wooden in his acting, partly a function of the direction (anger is more attractive than gloom), and was not given a proper chance to show off his dancing skills. The acting level in general was unimpressive even for a musical.

Given the richness of the music and material, this film is an opportunity wasted. The later television version, though significantly truncated, has real singers in the leads, much more of the show’s music, and better choreography. This film offers only a hint of the musical’s riches. Too bad the NBC Live musicals aren’t happening anymore; this would be a perfect candidate.